


Champion's Ballad

by Wanderbird



Series: Fragments [5]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Gen, Selectively Mute Link (Legend of Zelda), Standalone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:55:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22756639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wanderbird/pseuds/Wanderbird
Summary: Kass is not an unobservant person.So when one particular kid *keeps finding him* in all the places his teacher used to fixate on, no matter how impossible they are to reach without the help of wings, Kass notices a pattern. And over time, a theory comes to mind.In which Kass knows a little more than he lets on, about that quiet Hylian he's beginning to call friend.
Relationships: Kass & Link (Legend of Zelda)
Series: Fragments [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1525865
Comments: 12
Kudos: 281





	Champion's Ballad

Kass didn't think him strange at all the first time they met.

Sure, Link seemed to stare a little more than most Hylians did, and didn't speak much-- or at all, really-- but no-one could help the way they’re built. Kass understood.

He agreed, in fact. Hylians were a little much sometimes, with all their rigid manners and aversion to maintaining eye contact. He’d learn to cope with it, spending so much time among them, but honestly? Some of it still felt a little weird. It was comforting, really, to know that there were Hylians who felt the same way he did, even if the they had trouble with different aspects. And Link got around it remarkably well! The child _could_ speak out loud, if he really needed to. Though his Hylian accent was oddly… archaic, like some of Kass’s ballads from before the Calamity, and his speech was slow and difficult. But with many people, he instead exchanged words by means of gestures, a sort of sign language instead of verbal speech—Hylian Sign, the manager at Outskirt Stable called it. Kass tried to learn a little, but—well, the language was quite clearly built for speakers with five nimble fingers, not four feathery talons. He could just about manage “hello”, “goodbye”, “trade”, “music”, and “thank you”. Fortunately, that was usually enough to get by, on the rare occasion that he met someone who didn’t speak verbal Hylian.  
In any case, Link certainly _understood_ verbal Hylian without issue, and listened more deeply to his song than anyone Kass had met before. When it was done, the kid still sat, entranced. Kass hadn’t dared to interrupt—nor had he cared to. The kid was in a world of his own.

And then finally, Link stood up. There was something different in those eyes than had twinkled there before, something old and melancholy, that put Kass on edge.  
“…thank you,” he murmured. “That was…” a gesture Kass could not interpret, while Link struggled for words. “That was familiar to me, I think. Beautiful?”  
“You’re welcome.” Kass bowed his head. “Thank you for the compliment.”  
“What…” The kid’s head tilted in what had to be curiosity. “What doing so far from village?”

“Oh!” He gave a pleased hum. Many Hylians asked that question, but he felt flattered that this young one would go through so much effort to ask. “I’m a musical anthropologist, I suppose you could say, though not so much the scholarly type. I travel around the continent, learning the local musics of different people.”  
The kid smiled. “Music. I like music. Used to sing, a little.”  
“How lovely! You don’t anymore?”

The smile stayed fixed on his face as Link shook his head. “Can’t. Shrine did good job, but couldn’t fix throat entirely. Hurts if I try.”  
His throat? That must be why the kid’s voice was so hoarse and scratchy. Perhaps it also had something to do with why he didn’t seem to talk much. “I’m very sorry,” Kass swallowed against the sudden lump in his own throat. He couldn’t imagine… But then, perhaps it didn’t matter quite as much to a Hylian as it did to a Rito. “That must be frustrating—but here I am, doing nothing but reminding you! My apologies. You have no need for a Rito’s pity. You said you like music. Is there a particular song you’d like to hear from me?”  
As it happened, there was not. But regardless, from there the two of them launched into a perfectly acceptable discussion, that lasted all the way till dusk. _Yes,_ Kass resolved. _Yes, I should make sure to keep an eye on this one._

The next time was only slightly different.  
Sure, it was pretty weird that Link had managed to find him perched on a rock hundreds of meters out to sea, but Hylians had managed stranger before. That construction of cloth and wood he used to glide there from the cliffs was cleverly built, and expertly guided. So Kass just smiled, and showed the kid the song he'd been working on, and watched his eyes light up with understanding.

It was cute.

Like a little hatchling finally figuring out how to sing.

It became a little less cute when Kass started actually keeping track.  
Link found him on top of the glowing tower in a bottomless pit, on the cliffs near the Gerudo Desert. He listened intently to his song, glided off to the smooth black pedestal on a nearby cliff, and fired an arrow into the sun—and seemed completely unsurprised when a glowing orange structure rose out of the ground beneath him.  
Link found him off in Rabio Plain, and after listening to the local legend, went off and spent half the day chasing goats until he managed to stay atop one, sweaty and bruised and covered in mud. And he laughed and laughed and laughed, and even Kass couldn’t help but chitter amusement at the sight. But then Link led the buck onto the platform, and grinned victorious when another structure rumbled from the ground. He walked in, and a few minutes later, came right back out again.  
Link found him atop the highest mushroom near Hyrule ridge, and how the kid managed that, Kass would never guess. He couldn’t have glided to it, that mushroom was the highest thing around! Yet there he was when Kass turned around, ready to listen with anticipation in his eyes.

Still.  
Link was a sweet kid, and if the shadows in his eyes were gradually being replaced by a more relaxed determination, Kass had to take that as a win. That dark blond hair grew out, his tunics sprouted holes, then patches. Some days a giant, fluffy wolf stood by his side with patience like the mountain snow. It was… nice, he supposed, having someone whose coming he could never predict. Not having to always seek out company, but not constantly having people at his elbow, either. And Link was good company, for Kass. He was good at companionable silence, and not too overwhelming to speak with. He didn’t try to get Kass to read anything, either, once he explained the way the letters danced beneath his gaze. And Link was an _excellent_ cook.

Kass continued his pilgrimage.

In all the places his teacher had insisted he play, so long ago, Link found him. In each, after hearing the song he’d found, or which his teacher had found, Link did _something_ and unearthed a shrine. That was what Link called them, anyway: shrines. Kass’s teacher had called them trials.

By the time Link met him again in Rito Village, he was sure of it.

He stopped by his home, a private little cave on the bluffs beneath the village. Dug through his things, and all the instruments he couldn’t play but had inherited from his teacher—ocarinas, harps, lyres, everything under the sun—until he found it. A pictograph, not a drawing, of the Champions before the Calamity, before Kass was even _born_. And sure enough, sandwiched between Princess Mipha and the Gerudo Champion, right behind Princess Zelda—  
There he was.

Link looked a couple years younger, certainly, in the picture. More blank and less haunted, and without those awful burn scars that now ran all the way up the poor kid’s side. Still, if it weren’t for the hundred year gap, Kass could have _sworn_ they were the same person! They had to be.  
He gave a little hum as he thought.  
It was true, then, he supposed. No wonder Link was so often attacked by random passerby, no wonder he could do such astonishing things, if he was the hero of old. But even now, Kass knew he wasn’t ready. He was just a kid, he was just exploring, and relearning all the things he’d forgotten on the way. He’d be in real trouble if he faced the Calamity now—as he’d have to if the Calamity’s servants knew who he was supposed to be! And servants there certainly were, for how else could the Calamity have taken control of every Guardian and Divine Beast on the continent, all in one fell swoop? All it would take was a word in the wrong ear.

And then Kass tucked the picture into his belt pouch for safekeeping, and flew back to the village.  
 _Don’t you worry, Link,_ he thought. _Just keep tracking me down. I’ll guide you where you need to go._

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> ...I have been meaning to write this for months and months, I'm glad I finally got around to it. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! It really means the world to me!


End file.
